They are the first airline to connect Central Visayas directly to the Philippines’ summer capital. Philippine Airlines (PAL) inaugurated its direct Cebu-Baguio route today, kicking off the restoration of Loakan Airport to commercial flights. This is also a game redefining route, allowing travelers from the Visayas area to fly straight to Baguio without having to disembark in Manila to take a land trip.
The PAL Cebu to Baguio flight PR2230, operated by a DeHavilland Canada Dash 8-400 Next Generation (NG) turboprop aircraft, took off from Mactan Cebu International Airport at 8:59 a.m. and arrived in Baguio at 10:50 a.m., a flight time of roughly 1 hour 34 minutes. The plane, registered RP-C5903, was handed to PALexpress in September 2017.
The return to the City of Pines
After a 24-year break, this is PAL’s first flight to Baguio. It was in 1998 that PAL services between Manila and Baguio stopped when the airline withdrew its final Fokker 50 aircraft from operation. From then on, just one commercial airline, Asian Spirit, flew the Manila-Baguio route with NAMC YS-11 turboprop planes. Their services were later terminated.
With the number of expressways developed between Manila and Baguio, aviation services between the two cities were no longer required. There was, however, no direct connection between the Visayas area and Baguio. People had to fly to Manila to go to Baguio via land.
People no longer need to travel to Manila or Clark to take a land excursion to Baguio thanks to PAL’s new Cebu to Baguio flights. This helps to decongest NAIA and makes traveling directly from Cebu to Baguio more convenient.
History was made in Baguio
On March 15, 1941, Philippine Air Lines made its first commercial trip from Manila to Baguio. A PAL Beech Model 18 carrying 5 people took off from Nielsen Field in Manila, kicking off a long and eventful history in Philippine aviation.
PAL’s first aircraft was the Beech Model 18, and it was from here that the business began commercial operations. PAL launched regular flights from Manila’s Nielson Airfield to Baguio with the registration NPC-54 barely nine months before the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor the following year.
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